Day 154

The square peg and the round hole:  a lesson in perspective.

In life, perspective is everything.  Painting has taught me that.  So what is perspective?  It has a few meanings, however, in its simplest form it refers to one’s point of view.  In art, that is limited more to the visual spectrum, while in life it carries with it a broader meaning.  How we view things is quite colored by our experiences and prejudices.  We often times miss the big picture for all the details that we must attend to in life.  If our perspective in life is off, as in painting, the picture will be out of balance.  This is not to say, of course, that one does not need to occasionally distort their perspective a bit to get a fresh look at the same subject.  In fact, it is often those that look at life from off of center that are capable of the greatest genius.  One must be cautious not to make distortion their sole aim, or balance will never be restored and their perspective will become as fixed as before but without an appreciation for reality and that which is true in the world.  In this way, I believe life is much like a teeter totter.  You put a fat kid on one side and nobody on the other, he will quickly hit the ground without hopes of ever reaching the sky.  You place even the skinniest of child at the other end, and a point of balance can be obtained.  Even though the balance might be heavier on one side, both sides know the middle.  This to me is just as good as when both children weigh the same and can stare at each other eye to eye across a level plane.  The perspective from the bottom and the top are equal so long as both can see the center and know what would be necessary for each to see eye to eye.  It is the way with all things and certainly the way of Governance.

This notion of balance and perspective is a lesson constantly taught in our household and one of the most precious of gifts that we have given our children by means of our global relocation.  So, what brings me to this topic on this fine, albeit cool, summer day?  I recently used the phrase “a square peg in a round hole”.  This phrase haunted me last night as a drifted into slumber and being a bit off of center myself, I realized the following.  Whether a square peg fits into a round hole depends entirely on the size of the peg and the size of the hole.  I can feed square legos down a manhole all day long, but I can clearly not fit a brick through the eye of a needle unless of course the needle is the size of my car.  Perspective, it means everything and the exception often makes the rule.  I will never again use this phrase for without one’s perspective taken into account, it holds no meaning.  I think it better to simply say that something does not fit and leave it at that.  Perhaps it is the weeks worth of cloudy skies, or perhaps it is my need to make sense of it all that has me preoccupied with such thoughts, but either way, I feel a need to share these discoveries as they present themselves.

On the domestic front, our family from distant lands had made landfall and all is well.  Happy and healthy, we welcome them into our French life.  Again we will endeavor to share with them the best of what we have learned and give them experiences that will last them a lifetime if they never have the fortune to return this way again.  The evening was short and the jet lag apparent.  The after effects will surely last through the day.  For now we will lay low and let them recover.  Hopefully skies will clear a bit and allow for a nice tour of our new environment and all it has to offer.  In that mind, I will keep this short and sweet and catch up a little later on with the latest adventure from overseas.  I will leave you with the following treat for your mind’s eye.  The usual quiet of my afternoon was shattered yesterday with a sonic blast that I won’t soon forget.  The screaming howl was sufficient, but the ominous view caused me to take a moment to feel safe and quite unsafe all at the same time.  What was it that broke my afternoon of bliss?  A French fighter jet skimming the tops of the nearby trees that seemed low enough to reach out and touch.  I have seen Stealth fighters in the skies over the US and it is of course common to see military aircraft of all sorts in the skies over the US.  The vantage point, however, is a lot less personal than was the case this particular afternoon.  Had I not been beneath the aircraft, I would have certainly been close enough to see the whites of the pilot’s eyes.  My memory exaggerates, but it was indeed a powerful reminder that the world is in constant turmoil and that it is someone’s job to monitor the balance of power from the sky.  We will speak again soon.  R.